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The Scientific Basis of Kṛṣṇa Consciousness
<< 2. Perceiving the Existence of the Supreme Scientist, Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa >>
 | When we think calmly and carefully about this wonderful universe, we can see that everything is working under the control of a supreme brain. The arrangements in nature are perfectly ordered. Things would be at random without the careful planning of a scientific and engineering brain. It is a common understanding that there is a cause behind each action. A machine cannot run without an operator. Modern scientists are very proud of automation, but there is a scientific brain behind automation also. Even Albert Einstein agreed that there is a perfect brain behind all the natural physical laws. When we talk about “brain” and “operator,” these terms imply a person. They cannot be impersonal. One may inquire who this person is. He is Lord Sri Kṛṣṇa, the supreme scientist and supreme engineer, under whose kind will the whole cosmos is working. Sri Kṛṣṇa says: “The whole cosmic order is under Me. By My will it is manifested again and again, and by My will it is annihilated at the end.”(1)
| | | Now let us look into a few samples from the Lord's creation, and upon contemplating these exemplary aspects, one should develop a better understanding and appreciation of the existence of the most powerful brain, Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa. The sun that we see daily is the nearest star. It is one hundred earth diameters across and is ninety-three million miles away from the earth. Every day the sun supplies the solar system with a tremendous amount of heat, light and energy. “The very tiny fraction of the sun's energy that falls on the earth-estimated at about five parts in a hundred million million-is about 100,000 times greater than all the energy used in the world's industries. The total energy the sun emits in a single second would be sufficient to keep a one-kilowatt electric fire burning for 10,000 million million years. Put in a different way, the energy the sun emits in one second is greater than the whole amount of energy the human species has consumed throughout its entire history.”(2) Yet it is only one of the countless number of stars floating in the sky in every direction. With the material scientific brain, the thermal, electrical and nuclear powerhouses have been made. These can supply heat, light and energy to a small, limited extent, but Lord Kṛṣṇa is supplying the whole planet with an unlimited source of energy just from one sun. Kṛṣṇa says: “The splendor of the sun, which dissipates the darkness of this whole world, comes from Me. And the splendor of the moon and the splendor of fire are also fiom Me.”(3) The planets are revolving in a systematic path around the sun. Even within the smallest atom, the electrons are orbiting around the nucleus in a perfect manner.
| | | Thus, from the submicroscopic realm of the atom to the expanding reaches of the galactic objects, this material universe is running like intricate, well-oiled clockwork according to great natural physical laws and principles. Scientists have gained great acclaim for making a few spaceships, whereas Kṛṣṇa effortlessly produces gigantic spaceships, such as planets and stars, which are perfectly equipped and maintained. In Bhagavad-gītā Kṛṣṇa says, gām āviśya ca bhūtāni dhārayāmy aham ojāsa: “I enter into each planet, and by My energy they stay in orbit.”(4) The laws made by the supreme brain always remain perfect; they are never violated. We never see the sun rising in the west and setting in the east. The colorful rainbow that we observe when the sun is shining during a shower is only visible when the sun is behind the observer, due to the laws of refraction. Also, each year the seasons change quite periodically, producing symptoms unique to each season.
| | |  Who made the laws of refraction that govern the visibility of the rainbow?
| | | Now let us look into some aspects of the Lord's creation at the molecular level. Chemists find that the different colors in flowers are due to chemicals called anthocyanins, and the different aromas are mostly due to chemicals called terpenes and terpenoid compounds. The molecular frameworks for these compounds range from very simple structures to very complex rnetworks. Camphor, for example, is a terpenoid compound, and the characteristic odor of lemons is due to the molecule called limonene, which is one of the simple terpenes. Similarly, the characteristic colors in carrots and tomatoes are due to molecules called carotenoids, which are higher forms of terpenes. The molecular framework for each definite color or aroma is wonderfully unique. A little change in position of a few atoms in the molecule, a little variation in the geometry of the molecule or a slight change in the size of the molecule can cause a color to change from orange to red, a mild, pleasing aroma to become repellent and pungent, and a flavor to change from sweet to bitter. On one extreme we find the smallest molecule, the hydrogen molecule, which contains only two atoms of hydrogen. On the other extreme we find giant molecules such as the proteins and nucleic acids (DNA and RNA), the building blocks of all living material bodies, which contain innumerable atoms made for a definite function. Similarly, the crystalline pattern of each different molecule is unique. The geometrical shape for sodium chloride (common salt), for example, is cubical. Charcoal, graphite and diamonds are all derived from the same element, carbon, and yet the shining and transparent diamond is extremely hard, whereas graphite is soft, black and opaque. This is due to the difference in the crystalline forms of these molecules. In the crystal lattice of the diamond, each carbon atom is tetrahedrally surrounded by four other carbon atoms at a distance of 1.54 angstroms (one angstrom= 10-8 em.). In graphite, by contrast, the three bonds of each carbon atom are distorted so as to lie in the same plane, the fourth bond being directed perpendicularly to this plane to link with a carbon atom of the neighboring layer.
| | |  The intricate DNA molecule exhibits the artistry of the supreme scientist, Kṛṣṇa.
| | | In this way we can cite innumerable examples of molecular networks so fantastically and delicately arranged that chemists cannot but wonder about the most expert hand and brain who is making all these wonderful artistic arrangements in His laboratory. Indeed, the intelligence and ability of the supreme scientist, Śrī Kṛṣṇa, are inconceivable (acintya). There is no scientist who can deny it. How then can any chemist abstain from appreciating the wonderful works of the Supreme Lord, Śrī Kṛṣṇa? In Bhagavad-gītā we find: “One should meditate upon the Supreme Person as the one who knows everything, as He who is the oldest, who is the controller, who is smaller than the smallest, who is the maintainer of everything, who is beyond all material conception, who is inconceivable, and who is always a person. He is luminous like the sun and, being transcendental, is beyond this material nature.”(5)
| | | At best, scientists can only try to imitate the wonderful artistic works of the Supreme Lord. They cannot even do this properly, and most of their attempts lead to failure and disappointment. Even when they are partly successful, it is only with the greatest difficulty. For example, Professor R.B. Woodward of Harvard, a Nobel Prize winner in chemistry (1965) and Professor A. Eschenmoser of Zurich took eleven years to synthesize the vitamin B12 molecule. Altogether, ninety-nine scientists from nineteen different countries were involved just to accomplish this one small task.(6) Yet Krsna is making all these complex molecules at will.
| | | Interestingly enough, when scientists fail again and again in their attempts to make something, they consciously or unconsciously pray to God for help. Does this not indicate the existence of the supreme scientist, Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa, and the natural subordinate position of all other living entities? A crude example is the explosion that occurred inside the Apollo 13 spacecraft during its attempt to land on the moon on April 11, 1970. The Apollo capsule was made by hundreds of scientific and technological brains and cost millions of dollars. No one could predict that there would be an explosion. When it happened, however, and the lives of the three astronauts were in danger, those involved in the mission requested all the people on earth to pray to God for the safe return of the astronauts. Such is the situation. At times of danger, most people tend to remember God, although at other times they forget Him.
| | |  Danger in Apollo 13: The members of the mission requested all the people of the earth to pray for the return of the astronauts.
| | | Now, let us look into some very simple and graphic exampies of the artistry of the Lord's creation. We see that among the lower forms of living entities, social organization is very smoothly maintained. For example, in a bee colony the queen bee is nicely taken care of by the drones (male bees), while the workers collect nectar from flowers all day long. It is quite amazing to consider how the bees, with their tiny bodies, can collect such a great amount of honey for themselves as well as for other living entities. In this way, the colony is maintained with beautiful order. Similarly, the loving relationship between a mother and her baby is quite clearly visible even in very small forms of living entities. During the monsoon season in tropical countries, when there are torrents of rain, the small ants run to find shelter, carrying their eggs on their heads. The spider makes its wonderful webs with great architectural skill to serve as a shelter as well as to catch its prey for survival. Silkworms spin hundreds of yards of fine threads to form cocoons for their shelter during the pupa stage. Inside a tiny seed, smaller than the size of a mustard seed, the whole potency of a big banyan tree is present. In this way, we can see the wonderful arrangements of the Supreme Lord, who is creating, maintaining and guiding all living entities, small or big. Kṛṣṇa says: "Furthermore, O Arjuna, I am the generating seed of all existences. There is no beingmoving or unmoving-that can exist without Me."(7)
| | |  The Supreme Lord arranges the social organization of the
bee colony.
| | |  Kṛṣṇa can place an entire banyan tree within a tiny seed.
| | | The main trouble with material scientists is that they generally neglect the most important and fundamental aspect of their inquiries. For example, when Newton saw the falling of the apple, he asked why and how the apple fell. However, he did not inquire who caused the falling of the apple. As an answer to his inquiry, he discovered the laws of gravitation. His answer was that the apple fell because of the laws of gravitation. But who made the laws of gravitation? Srila Prabhupada kindly explains that the apple did not fall while green but while ripe. Therefore Newton's gravitational theory was not enough to explain the falling of the apple. There is some other cause behind the total scene of the falling and, thereby, behind the law of gravitation. That cause is Lord Sri Kṛṣṇa. In Bhagavad-gītā we find, vāsudevaḥ sarvam iti: “Kṛṣṇa is the cause of all causes.”(8) Furthermore, scientists have to know that the little ability they have is also given by the Lord. Kṛṣṇa says, pauruṣaṁ nṛṣu: “I am the ability in man.”(9)
| | |  Newton's laws could not explain who caused the apples to fall.
| | | By various mechanical means (telescopes, etc.), assumptions, empiric theories and conceptual models, cosmologists and astronomers are trying with tremendous vigor to understand what the universe is, what its size is, and the time scale of its creation. At the present time they are speculating that there may be a tenth planet in the solar system [1974], and they are trying to locate it.(10) How far they wil be successful in finding a real answer to their attempts only time can tell. But the fact is that they will never be able to fully discover the secrets of nature, which is the product of creation of Kṛṣṇa, the supreme scientist. Any thoughtful person can understand how foolish he is even to dream of measuring the size of this universe, since he does not know completely the nature of the sun, the nearest star. Sn1a Prabhupada cites the example of the philosophy of Dr. Frog, who lives in a well of three feet and has no idea how vast the Pacific Ocean is but who speculates that the Pacific Ocean might be five feet wide, ten feet wide, etc., comparing it to his well. The point is that comprehending the unlimited knowledge beyond by our limited means is simply a waste of time and energy. All the knowledge is already there in the authorized scriptures, the Vedas. One simply has to take the knowledge from the supreme authority, Kṛṣṇa.
| | |  Dr. Frog, Ph.D.
| | | The details of the creation of this material universe and the living entities like demigods, men and others have been given in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, First Canto, Chapter Three, verses 1-5. The description of the material and spiritual universes is completely given in the Brahma-saṁhitā, Fifth Chapter, and from Bhagavad-gītā we get the clear information that the entire material universe is only one fourth of the creative energy of the Supreme Lord, Śrī Kṛṣṇa. The other three fourths of the creative energy of the Lord are manifested in the spiritual sky, called the Vaikuṇṭhaloka.
| | |  A complete description of the material and spiritual universes is available in the Vedic literatures.
| | | Lord Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu, the golden avatāra (incarnation) of the Supreme Personality of Godhead Śrī Kṛṣṇa, clearly explained to Sanātana Gosvāmī, one of the Lord's intimate disciples, about the nature of these universes. The Lord explained that the material universes have a limited length and breadth, whereas no one can measure the length and breadth of all the Vaikuṇṭha planets. These Vaikuṇṭha planets are like the petals of a lotus flower, and the principal part of that flower is the center of all the Vaikuṇṭhas. This part is called Kṛṣṇaloka, or Goloka Vṛndāvana. The Supreme Lord, Śrī Kṛṣṇa, has His original eternal abode on this planet. The other Vaikuṇṭhas are also inhabited by residents who are full with six opulences - wealth, strength, knowledge, beauty, fame and renuntiation - and in each and every Vaikuvtha planet a different expansion of Kṛṣṇa has His eternal abode.(11) scientists have no information of his vast knowledge.
| | |  The Supreme Lord, Śrī Kṛṣṇa, has His original eternal abode on Goloka.
| | | Certainly. the secrets of the universe cannot be unfolded by the tiny brains of material scientists. We should agree without a doubt that man's vision in all directions is extremely limited by the inadequacies of his senses, his technology and his intellect. None can deny the existence of the supreme scientist, Śrī Kṛṣṇa. He is the proprietor and knower of everything. Kṛṣṇa says: "O son of Prtha, know that I am the original seed of all existences, the intelligence of the intelligent, and the prowess of all powerful men(12)... O conquerer of wealth [Arjuna] , there is no truth superior to Me. Everything rests upon Me, as pearls are strung on a thread."(13) Only fools would argue about the existence of the Supreme Lord, Śrī Kṛṣṇa. In Bhagavad-gītā, Śrī Kṛṣṇa says: "Those miscreants who are grossly foolish, lowest among mankind, whose knowledge is stolen by illusion, and who partake of the atheistic nature of demons, do not surrender unto Me."(14)
| | | Therefore, instead of denying and challenging the existence of the supreme scientist, Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa or God, it should be the prime duty of all our scientist friends to appreciate the inconceivable brain of the Lord and His wonderful manifestations everywhere. One may falsely claim the credit for the discovery of radio, television, computers, penicillin, etc. But the fact is that everything was already there because nothing can come out of nothing. If someone claims that anything belongs to him, he is the greatest thief. He is stealing property from the supreme father, Śrī Kṛṣṇa, and claiming it to be his. Nothing belongs to us. Everything belongs to Kṛṣṇa. Śrī Īśopaniṣad says: “Everything animate or inanimate that is within the universe is controlled and owned by the Lord. One should therefore accept only those things necessary for himself,which are set aside as his quota, and one must not accept other things, knowing well to whom they belong.”(15)
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NOTES
| 1 | | prakṛtiṁ svām avaṣtabhya visṛjāmi punaḥ punaḥ
bhūta-grāmam imam kṛtsnam avaś&aṁ prakṛter vaśāt
[Bhagavad-gītā 9.8] | | 2 | | Fred Hoyle, Astronomy (Garden City, New York: Doubleday and Company, 1962), p. 232 . | | 3 | | yad āditya-gataṁ tejo jagad bhāsayate'khilam
yac candramasi yac cāgnau tat tejo viddhi māmakam
[Bhagavad-gītā 15.12] | | 4 | | [Bhagavad-gītā 15.13] | | 5 | | kaviṁ purāṇam anuśāsitāram aṇor aṇīyāṁsam anusmared yaḥ
sarvasya dhātāram acintya-rūpaṁ āditya-varṇaril tamaṣaḥ parastāt
[Bhagavad-gītā 8.9] | | 6 | | James H. Krieger, Chemical and Engineering News, March 12, 1973, p.16. | | 7 | | yac cāpi sarva-bhūtānāṁ bījaṁ tad aham arjuna
na tad asti vinā yat syān mayā bhūtaṁ carācaram
[Bhagavad-gītā 10.39] | | 8 | | [Bhagavad-gītā 7.19] | | 9 | | [Bhagavad-gītā 7.8] | | 10 | | D. Rawlins and M. Hammerton, “Is There a Tenth Planet in the Solar System?” Nature, December 22, 1972, p. 457. | | 11 | | [Prabhupāda, Teachings of Lord Caitanya, pp. 82·83.] | | 12 | | ījaṁ māṁ sarva-bhūtānāṁ viddhi pārtha sanātanam
buddhir buddhimatām asmi tejas tejasvinām aham
[Bhagavad-gītā 7.10] | | 13 | | mattaḥ parataraṁ nānyat kiñcid asti dhanañ-jaya
mayi sarvam idaṁ protaṁ sūtre maṇi-gaṇā iva
[Bhagavad-gītā 7.7] | | 14 | | na māṁ duṣkṛtino mūḍhāḥ prapadyante narādhamāḥ
māyayāpahṛta-jñānā āsuraṁ bhāvam āśritāḥ
[Bhagavad-gītā 7.15] | | 15 | | īśāvāsyam idaḿ sarvaṁ yat kiñca jagatyāṁ jagat
tena tyaktena bhuñjīthā mā gṛdhaḥ kasya svid dhanam
[Īśopaniṣad 1] |
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